Just my luck - i come all the way to India, armed with my factor 40, and it rains! It is rainy season in the tiny village of Gomathimuthupuram, Tamil Nadu and the villagers find themselves welcoming their new resident alien...
What can i tell you? The village is small, Christian, Dalit and very poor. The hospitality i've received has been overwhelming (to the point of being just a teeny bit suffocating). The kids are amazing, soul-ful and very happy in spite (or because) of their poverty. The orphanage has 97 kids at the moment and they have so little - they sleep on the bare floor at night, don't get Christmas presents and most don't even have toothbrushes. The day i arrived i went for a little explore and was practically mobbed by a throng of school kids who were completely overcome to see this queer pale creature in their midst. It was unwise to attempt to 'hand out' the sweets i'd brought. The teaching is like wading through treacle. I had underestimated how little english people would have. My Tamil remains pretty basic. The most useful phrase i've picked up translates as 'shut up your mouth' and when used on the kids it has a most satisfactory effect.
In spite of the generous hospitality (i cannot express how kind people are, and how they would give me everything of what little they own) i've been feeling a bit isolated and lonesome (a sort of existential as well as ordinary lonliness). I've begun to see that my taking myself off to India was like a self imposed spiritual exile, you know the kind of thing: strip everything away - family, friends, money, job, church, place, routine etc - and see what you're left with. So far no sign of 'enlightenment', just crabbiness. So i've decided to abandon ship and will be heading for Shantivanan, the ashram of Bebedictine monk Bede Griffiths. Bede Griffiths came to India in search of what he felt was the missing 'eastern' part of his spirituality and was very interested in how different faiths communicated. Now inter-faith dialogue doesn't really do it for me. In fact i would echo a very socially active, forward thinking nun i know: "inter-faith dialogue? BORING!" If the liturgy is all about cobbling together lots of world faiths in one shiny happy package i will turn my nose up, shake the dust from my feet and leave. But i am open minded, particularly at the prospect of there being lots of monks...
So yes i am disappointed to be leaving five months earlier than planned, but i may well return for Christmas or Easter.
More to come.
What can i tell you? The village is small, Christian, Dalit and very poor. The hospitality i've received has been overwhelming (to the point of being just a teeny bit suffocating). The kids are amazing, soul-ful and very happy in spite (or because) of their poverty. The orphanage has 97 kids at the moment and they have so little - they sleep on the bare floor at night, don't get Christmas presents and most don't even have toothbrushes. The day i arrived i went for a little explore and was practically mobbed by a throng of school kids who were completely overcome to see this queer pale creature in their midst. It was unwise to attempt to 'hand out' the sweets i'd brought. The teaching is like wading through treacle. I had underestimated how little english people would have. My Tamil remains pretty basic. The most useful phrase i've picked up translates as 'shut up your mouth' and when used on the kids it has a most satisfactory effect.
In spite of the generous hospitality (i cannot express how kind people are, and how they would give me everything of what little they own) i've been feeling a bit isolated and lonesome (a sort of existential as well as ordinary lonliness). I've begun to see that my taking myself off to India was like a self imposed spiritual exile, you know the kind of thing: strip everything away - family, friends, money, job, church, place, routine etc - and see what you're left with. So far no sign of 'enlightenment', just crabbiness. So i've decided to abandon ship and will be heading for Shantivanan, the ashram of Bebedictine monk Bede Griffiths. Bede Griffiths came to India in search of what he felt was the missing 'eastern' part of his spirituality and was very interested in how different faiths communicated. Now inter-faith dialogue doesn't really do it for me. In fact i would echo a very socially active, forward thinking nun i know: "inter-faith dialogue? BORING!" If the liturgy is all about cobbling together lots of world faiths in one shiny happy package i will turn my nose up, shake the dust from my feet and leave. But i am open minded, particularly at the prospect of there being lots of monks...
So yes i am disappointed to be leaving five months earlier than planned, but i may well return for Christmas or Easter.
More to come.
posted by effie at 11:06 PM
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